HAMAS AND FATAH BICKERING ALREADY
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/105/palestinian_reconciliation_stalls_at_the_get_go_as_fatah_warns_of_wrecking_tactics
Just one day after the leaders of Fatah and Hamas announced a reconciliation agreement between the two warring Palestinian factions signs have already emerged that the mooted deal could be still-born.
A Fatah official warned on Thursday that important groupings within Hamas, a fanatical terror group committed to Israel’s destruction, were already protesting against the move and could resort to violence at any time.
“Some militias in Hamas may obstruct the reconciliation agreement because it doesn’t satisfy them,” said Amin Maqboul, a senior Fatah official.
Meanwhile, the Israeli foreign ministry came out publicly on Thursday with a statement ruling out any negotiations with any Palestinian government that include Hamas.
“It needs to be clear that such an agreement is crossing a red line,” Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman said in remarks to Israel’s Army Radio that were widely quoted in the broader Israeli media. “The significance of the agreement is that terrorists will take hold of the West Bank. Hundreds of terrorists will flood the West Bank and therefore we need to prepare for a different situation.”
Israel has long said that it cannot negotiate with any Palestinian organisation that does not accept Israel’s right to exist and which employs an extreme anti-Semitic agenda. The Hamas charter is in large part inspired by the Protocols of Zion, a notorious anti-Semitic forgery from Tsarist Russia alleging a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.
Israel is deeply concerned that any deal between Fatah – the PLO faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – and Hamas could all too easily lead to a Hamas takeover in the West Bank along the lines of the bloody coup Hamas mounted in Gaza in 2007.
Following the takeover Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians ultimately provoking Israel to launch Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 and January 2009.
Iran, which funds and arms Hamas, welcomed the Egyptian brokered deal between the two Palestinian factions, further arousing Israeli fears about what it really entails.
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